


Like a fine white Benden - improving with age

by lyonie17



Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: F/M, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyonie17/pseuds/lyonie17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Menolly's friendship with Robinton, growing and evolving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a fine white Benden - improving with age

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salable_mystic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salable_mystic/gifts).



> for salable_mystic: Thanks for the chance to revisit one of my favorite relationships in one of my earliest fandoms. I was so excited to see this request on your list! Enjoy!

  
_“I’ve found Petiron’s lost apprentice!” ___  


Menolly’s feet had just grown skin enough to wear the boots T’gellan had brought from Benden when she had to walk the tables.  It was a long way, that walk from Half-Circle to holdless to Benden to Harper journeywoman.  

Teaching Sebell SeaCraft had turned into lessons for Master Robinton too, and Menolly laughed to hear the MasterHarper’s round tones repeating lists of fish and sailing terms like he did vintages of Benden wine. 

“Are you certain that there are no more varieties of deep sea fish off the Igen coastline?  Surely I remember several more when Sebell had his turn.  I wouldn’t like to think that you were shorting me.”  Zair chirped in admonishment, and Robinton’s eyes twinkled.

Menolly sighed, sounding much put on, and repeated the list she had set the Master the previous morning.  

Robinton repeated them back to her with an expression that would have earned Piemur stern censure, and changed the subject abruptly. “Have you had inspiration regarding our young Ruathan friend? Sebell could easily fit a handful of copies in his pack on his way to Telgar Gather.”

“I’ve only two stanzas yet, and the refrain is not quite right.  I want to show some of the feeling of panic and the relief, but framing it into the traditional Impression forms leaves it empty or hollow somehow.”

“Well come then, show me what you’ve put down.”

  
_“Perhaps I should send more of my apprentices to a sea hold for a time if this is the sort of talent the waves provoke.” ___  


For all Robinton grumbled after everyone else decided he would retire to Cove Hold, Menolly saw the relief and the relaxation as he adjusted to the quiet.  As Lytol and D’Ram joined him, he mellowed even further.  

As she neared term with her and Sebell’s first child, she gratefully accepted an invitation to visit Cove Hold to escape the chill of Harper Hall’s winter.  

She brought rolls and rolls of compositions with her, and took shameless advantage of the Master’s stores of paper and the new inks he was “testing” for Fandarel and Benelek.

“Now, Menolly, I know you don’t want an old man fussing around you, but I’m sure a stool would be much more comfortable than standing at a lectern to compose. You make my feet hurt to see you.”

Menolly grinned, and accepted the chilled fruit juice Robinton had brought as a bribe.  “Thank you, Master, but you know I do my best work this way.  And I can’t hold the gitar when I’m sitting now, so it’s simpler to stand.”

Robinton scowled, but his face softened as he glanced at her belly, and he looked over her shoulder at the page she had been working on.  He followed the score for a few measures, and a happy grin spread over his features.

“Not only am I glad to see that you’re attempting this subject, and not some of the other dunderheads - not that you need to waste your time on the good news anymore - but this tune is delightfully appropriate!  Did you get the score from Aivas?”

“Of course, Master.  It is always best to receive information from the source.” Menolly pasted a demure expression over the smugness she felt.  “I also asked him about the permissability of using the tune with a different lyric, and he said that not only was it widely permitted, but that the Ancients routinely would reuse tunes, and that it was considered a mark of highest respect for the composer and the music.”

Robinton’s belly laugh rang out, and Menolly grinned.  “My girl, I’ve never doubted that you were a harper through and through, but once again you’ve confirmed it.  I assume this is planned for Fort Hold’s Turnover celebrations? So as to attain the broadest audience, of course.”

“It’s for all Pern’s Turnover, in fact.  I’ve already arranged with Benelek and Arnor to get copies for every Turnover celebration.  Sebell and I thought it appropriate to start a new turn with a memory of our ancestors’ Landing, and their celebration of arrival.”

  
_“ ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,’ Master Robinton.” ___  


It was too much.  Too much to bear, too much like that agony so long ago. Petiron’s death song was too much, and that was so long ago, before she knew his son.

Menolly’s well-developed sense of paradox did not sweeten the bitterness of loss.  The Southern sun bouncing off the almost Harper-blue waters of Cove Hold, the brilliant sails of the ships carrying all those who’d come to honor her Master, the fairs upon fairs of fire lizards, and the majestic sight of all the weyrs of Pern bearing witness - all of it made the loss a little sharper, the empty space a little clearer.  

She’d spent the sleepless hours since he’d fallen asleep (asleep, that was all) in planning and consultation. With Sebell, to pick which of the many songs the Master had carefully crafted were most representative of his work and more importantly which were most beloved. With Silvina, Lessa, and Sharra, delegating the task of transportation, which should be small after the scope of that they’d just completed, but was overwhelming in its meaning. With Sebell, because only with him could she allow the tears to fall. With Lytol, D’ram, Jancis, and Piemur, to work out the care and feeding of those of sufficient rank or connection to make it to Cove to honor Master Robinton. With Robse, to try to explain why “‘Harper” wasn’t going to play with him anymore.  With Sebell, to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse, until they both could sing the songs they must sing, without hesitation or flaw.  

On the day, Menolly could meet no one’s eye, but stared out across the water, and sang and sang and sang. She could hear the fire lizards and the ship fish in soaring harmony and sharp counterpoint, and after the splash, the dragons’ note.

 __

  
_Harper, tell us how you go -_ _  
Dragonback or down the road?   
Harper, sing us all the news! _

_ I go on my feet, or I go with a sail,   
I ofttimes climb up past a wing and a tail.   
From Hall to Hold to Weyr to Gather I go. _

_ Harper, tell us how you fare?   
Prentice, foster, weyrling, Heir,   
Will listen to the Harper’s tale. _

_ I fare so well, all the wide world over   
With dragon or lizard or shipfish or runner,   
I’ve never a lack for a friend or a cup. _

_ Harper, tell us what you’ve found,   
Hid for turns under the ground?   
Harper, where have we come from? _

_ I dreamt with my lizard, I dug in the earth.   
I found all the Records of Pern’s ancient birth,   
And the wisdom our ancestors brought when they came. _

_ Harper, while the Red Star burns,   
Remind us there are fewer turns   
Pern must labor and must wait! _

_ I counted the days, and I counted the hours   
I counted the wings, and I counted their power   
I watched as they flew and I saw their success! _

_ Harper, a song before rest -   
A dance, and a cup, and a jest.   
A wise friend beside you, now sleep. _


End file.
